The news that the government and the Opposition have agreed about something is always a fillip to the country’s morale. That they have reached a most welcome compromise on who should take over as President of the Republic next is a breakthrough that indeed promises the start of a new political season.

For one who campaigned against the choice of someone with past or present political links, the government-opposition move to nominate Dr George Abela for the nation’s highest post put me in a bit of a quandary... for a few seconds. The wisdom and positive vibes behind George Abela’s nomination make up for my initial hesitation, though I am happy to note the choice is not merely a parliamentary majority concoction aimed at helping “one of their own” get to the top of the pops.

George Abela has indeed been in politics and only last June was in contention for the leadership of the Labour Party, but – of his own accord – to Parliament he has never been, which of course gives him the edge on others who may have wistfully wished that the old parliamentary egg-hen mentality persisted even this time round.

Even better, Dr Abela’s nomination would be the first time since the happy inception of the Republican Constitution in 1974 that the two major political forces on the island have agreed on the choice of who should be our Head of State. Those in between Sir Anthony Mamo and George Abela were fully-fledged parliamentarians whose political commitment prior to being nominated was as obvious as their party emblems. That they still managed to give the presidency their special, undiluted, non-partisan attention, and in so doing won people’s hearts, is undoubtedly a tribute to each and everyone who has filled that post.

However, it was obvious from the very start of the national debate on the issue that people this time wanted something, someone different, and I think they got it. George Abela’s declared political principles have never been a secret, but that’s where it stops. He has never been known to be anyone’s pet. Rightly or wrongly, in all environments that he has worked in – from sport and politics to trade-unionism and industrial relations – he has been known to be his own man in awkward situations where he may have been expected to follow the majority but didn’t.

That is exactly what one would expect from a president. Although largely a national figurehead, the President is often caught in political and parliamentary wrangles that require both skill and sheer perseverance to be untangled. With his experience and acute sense of personal independence, George Abela will bring to this national institution a feeling of reassurance to citizens of all political colours and hues, something that could not, alas, be said about previous, post-1979 presidents at the very start of their Palace sojourn.

This is certainly no time for political hardliners. Hard-line Labourites will find that gripes about the events of 1998 were healed last year when George Abela, who was for long accused of having jumped ship, took a prominent part in the leadership contest and gracefully accepted the sweeping election of someone else to the Labour Party’s top post.

His action was a reflection of the party’s urgent need to mend and to gel after three consecutive electoral defeats. That he accepted a new, albeit important, role from the new party leadership was confirmation of his eagerness to join in the ringing of those very changes.

He will take to the presidency this same mood for political change in a climate of much uncertainty in world and national economic affairs, as well as an unstable government that failed to win an absolute majority in the last general election.

Hard-line Nationalists, on the other hand, cannot be jumping for joy at Dr Abela’s nomination. They would of course have preferred to have the usual parliamentary jamboree to pick one of their own for President regardless of what the vast majority of people were saying, and despite the obvious need for government to show some respect to current political realities.

As the second youngest ever (by a year to Agatha Barbara) President of the Republic, George Abela is, by the way, a baby boomer and a child of the Sixties, that is, someone who welcomes change and works for it, someone who seeks new avenues in which to navigate the way towards more freedom and respect for human rights. For the nostalgic, he is our Beatles and Stones, the ragazzo from Qormi’s Via Gluck, but for the more down-to-earth he is an activist for change and more change.

Is this not what the country needs at this moment in time?